Today, I want to talk about Grace. I find myself needing more of it, the imperfect being that I am, and am thankful abundant grace has been supplied. As my friend, Pastor Charles once told me, “There is enough grace for that,” after I had confessed to a discrepancy in my life.
2 Timothy 2:1 says, Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Grace must be accepted, received, appropriated. Man would rather earn God’s gifts. Grace is freely given, it is unmerited favor. We must be strong in it. If we rather give way to guilt and regret, we will be weakened. Grace re-strengthens us after a fail.
Grace is the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues. (Strong’s)
Ephesians 2:8,9 is mostly quoted to the prospective Christian.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Grace made it possible that only faith would be required to be saved. Works were disqualified by grace. And yet as believers we try to earn pardon by a work, be it guilt, suffering, or some act of penitence.
We put ourselves in the penitentiary for a few days rather than accept the grace of God and continue forward in grace. We ignore 1 John1:9:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Romans 5:2 speaks of the joy of grace:
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
It would behoove us to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
It is amazing grace. It is abundant grace. It is actual grace. It is
afterlife grace. Grace from the new birth to the resurrection.
You don't know how bad you are until you try to be good.
That is why we need the Cross. God himself had to come down from heaven to die for us in the form of a man. John 3:16 had to be written.
Noah in the Old Testament, was not sinless. But he found grace. Before the law. Before faith with Abraham. Before Abraham was, I am, Jesus said. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Grace allows me to be human, while I strive for perfection and holiness. Paul's thorn kept him human, needing grace. Otherwise he would be perfect, standing alongside Jesus. There is only one good, only one perfect, only one Jesus. While we want to be like Jesus in his likeness, and we shall be one day, we cannot because while human He is also God.
We can attain to Christlikeness and to Godliness, even be partakers of divine nature, and be filled with all the fulness of God, but we cannot make the cross unnecessary, or make grace valueless. It is actual, current, because we require it. For in sin did my mother conceive me. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. In me is no good thing. My righteousness is as a filthy rag. But grace can make me the righteousness of God in Christ. Then we are complete in Him though still a faulty human being.
The man with an addiction, a seemingly unovercomable habit, best exemplifies the need for grace. Most people are not addicted but all deal with various and sundry nonconformities to God's standard which prevent and preclude perfection, so we remain in need of grace.
While grace is not a license to sin, it is an allowance to be human. Products are built to tolerance, allowances fall within certain strictures, but not precisely to a perfect model. So we. Not flawless. Only Jesus is. So, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.-PJF-
Purpose! Ministries
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